Another Chance
by StardustOwl
Summary: INFINITY WAR SPOILERS! Fix-it - Tony Stark and Stephen Strange (alive for to be explained reasons) travel back in time to try to stop Thanos from gaining any of the Infinity Stones. Tony was expecting it to be difficult, he wasn't expecting Peter Parker to regain such an influence in his life. Contains most MCU characters, Pepperony, and Tony being a good dad to Peter Parker.
1. Back to the Start

**_Tony Stark and Stephen Strange (I was very sleep deprived when I wrote this and forgot he was dead - please pretend Nebula died instead!) manage to travel back in time to mid-way through the Avengers._**

 ** _Tony was expecting it to be difficult (after all, they had to figure out what to do about Hydra and convince Loki to help them, not to mention travel over to the other side of the galaxy to find the stones before Thanos did). He was not expecting the child he considered a son to regain such a big part in his life._**

 ** _Is it possible to balance saving the universe and protecting a ten year old?_**

 ** _A/N: I am planning for this to be Pepperony._**

 ** _I expect this to be a very long multi-chaptered story. Updates will be sporadic at first while I finish of my other wip._**

 ** _28/04/2018_**

 **Chapter One - Back to the Start**

"This is the stupidest plan you've ever had," Stephen said, looking at the sleeping body of Thanos.

"Coming from the guy who _handed the time stone over,_ " Tony replied, his voice sharp. He swallowed and grit his teeth. "You'll stick to the plan now, right?"

Stephen nodded tersely, stepping out of the mirror dimension and into Thanos's room. Tony followed close behind.

To their surprise, Thanos continued sleeping soundly.

Stephen took a deep breath before grabbing Tony then lunging to touch the Time Stone on the Infinity Gauntlet, still on Thanos's hand. If they had had any time to spare, Stephen might have wondered if he ever took it off.

With his hand on the stone he concentrated, focusing on the destination and allowing the power of the stone to flow into both him and Tony. It was far more difficult than using the amulet, but it didn't matter if it was difficult. It mattered if it worked.

Stephen smiled as their bodies began to disintegrate, despite the excruciating pain. No human could survive touching an infinity stone, but for what they were about to do they didn't need to survive.

They just needed their memories.

The last thing Stephen saw before his world faded to black was Thanos's eyes flickering open.

 _You're too late,_ he thought in satisfaction.

-AC-

"Stephen, Stephen, can you hear me?"

Stephen groaned in protest at the excruciating pain in his head and tried to weakly push away the hands that were shaking him.

 _What had happened?_

He seemed to be lying on a hard floor, the sound of many concerned voices in his ears and the overpowering smell of antiseptic in his nostrils.

He blinked his eyes open.

"Christine?"

"Stephen, you're going to be okay, we've sent for a nurse, she's coming to assess your condition,"

"What happened?" he asked groggily.

"You were about to perform a craniotomy when you screamed in agony and collapsed,"

"I stand by what I said, he was definitely glowing green for a second there," a voice commented in the background.

"Would you shut up Nicodemus, you're not helping!" Christine snapped.

 _Green, green, what is the significance of green?_

The Time Stone.

Steven shot up into a sitting position.

It had worked, it had _actually worked._

"Hey, no, you have to lie down, we need to figure out what happened…"

Stephen rolled his eyes and complied.

If he had brought them back to the right place they still had time, and he could always use his powers to sneak away after they had finished examining him. No use causing unnecessary panic.

-AC-

"Stark!" a familiar voice ordered. "Wake up!"

"Jarvis make him go away," Tony muttered, covering his head with his arms. The light way too bright for this kind of a killer hangover and there was no way he was facing anyone until he had got more sleep, and then an aspirin, and then possibly more alcohol to dull the hangover.

"Do you think Loki's doing this?" another voice asked.

"I doubt it," someone else replied. "He's probably just been injured in the fight more than he let on. That, or he hasn't slept for days. Or he's dying again,"

 _Dying_ , but that was meant to be a secret...

Suddenly, Tony saw a teenager, sobbing and apologising into his arms while he slowly disintegrated. It was at that moment that Tony had realised that he didn't need to have a child with Pepper, his dream had been about Peter. Because Peter was nothing less than his son.

Tony let out a cry of anguish and leapt to his feet.

He knew what he had to do now.

Ignoring the cries of "Mr Stark!" he fled the room and made his way towards Loki's cell on the helicarrier.

"Ant. Boot." said Fury as Tony pushed past the guards.

Tony was partially aware that he must have looked about as sane as Loki, his eyes wide and slightly unfocused, stumbling, his breathing ragged.

"You were sent here by Thanos, weren't you?" Tony demanded and watched as Loki's manic smile faltered slightly, momentarily replaced with a hint of pure fear.

"I'm afraid I don't follow," Loki said eloquently.

"Yeah you do," Tony said. "I know you do because I'm from the future. I've seen exactly what Thanos can do. And let me tell you there is no throne at the end of this for you. You end up dead, along with half the population of the universe. There is no version of this where you come out on top,"

Loki tilted his head, assessing Tony.

"How exactly do you intend to stop him?" Loki asked, his tone light.

"Foreknowledge, we have a head start now, and alliances with former enemies," Tony told him.

"And what do I get out of it?"

"You get to live, and friends if you don't stab us in the back,"

Loki frowned. "You do realise that I have no intention of giving Thanos the Space Stone, don't you, and I have the Mind Stone in my possession. I am now far more powerful than he could ever hope to be. Why should I help you and not myself?"

"Because let's be real Lokes," at this point Loki wrinkled his nose at the nickname. "The way you've started this, the only way you'll win is with the army that Thanos has so helpfully provided you with. And if you use them you'll never be free of him. This 'invasion' is more of a futile escape attempt than anything else, you're hoping to plunge our world into chaos before you go, a fitting memorial for the god of mischief and chaos. Also, this is exactly what you tried last time and we beat you then. And you had both stones then too. So, your call," Tony shrugged and watched as Loki's face broke into a grin.

"I like you," Loki said, more than a hint of madness in his voice, his eyes gleaming with mischief. "When do we start?"

 ** _I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter!_**

 ** _Nex_ _t up:_ _Tony tries to convince everyone that he really is telling the truth, no Loki is not mind-controlling him._**

 ** _Stephen tries to_ _get in contact with Tony._**

 ** _(P.S. anyone who wishes to discuss infinity war with me, my tumblr username is stardustloki :)_**


	2. Gaining Trust

_**A/N: So... what can I say except wow! I am blown away by the response the last chapter got. I have never got anywhere near that response to any first chapter I've published before and it's just crazy! Are you guys okay? (I ask rhetorically, you've seen infinity war, of course you're not okay). Just...wow. Seriously you guys**_ **Thank You** _ **!**_

 _ **I hope you enjoy this chapter!**_

 _ **05/05/2018**_

 **Chapter Two – Gaining Trust**

"You'd better have a convincing explanation for this, Stark," Fury said, glaring at Tony from across the table. Maria Hill and the rest of the original Avengers (minus Clint) were all staring at him with expressions ranging from confused, to distrusting, to fearful, or, in Natasha's case, to unreadable.

Tony tilted his head back and looked at the ceiling, spinning the chair from side to side slightly, his movement limited by the fact that he had his ankles crossed and his feet resting up on the table.

The problem with this situation was that he couldn't afford to let his mouth run away with him like he usually did. Stephen had impressed on him that the slightest change could have dire consequences and were the littlest thing to go wrong, they could make the future even worse. And Tony had decided that he probably should listen to him, at least a bit.

The easiest thing to do would be to tell them all about Hydra, because that would prove to everyone that he at least knew things he shouldn't have been able to, though perhaps the revelation could have been rationalised by Jarvis hacking into SHIELD. However, that revelation would put a lot of people in danger, the leaders of Hydra might do something rash that could lead to a lot of deaths, and Tony didn't think Steve would forgive him if Hydra killed their Winter Soldier in their panic.

And, the fact was, he needed Cap. He was a good friend, when he wasn't being ridiculously idealistic that was (and when Tony didn't wake up screaming from nightmares in which he lay there helplessly as Steve brought his shield down on him). Bucky also seemed like a decent guy, and if Tony had time to help reverse the brainwashing process he could be a real asset to the team.

One of the reasons for telling everyone this was that they needed to stand together, prepared, so he had to put past grudges behind him.

Godammit if only Tony could remember some unpredictable natural disaster this would all be so much easier!

Tony took a deep breath and looked at Fury.

"The fact is, Nick, I can't prove I'm from the future. There is nothing I could tell you that I couldn't have found out for myself through Jarvis, or orchestrated to get you to believe me,

"What I do know, is that last time this happened the Avengers all fought together against the Chitauri in New York, because right now Loki's mind-controlled minions should be headed to Stark Tower, where they're going to use the Tesseract to open up a wormhole through which the Chitauri and these space whales, who actually belong to Thanos, are going to come pouring out of. The World Security Council…and yes Nick, I know about them…try to nuke New York to stop the invasion. I threw the missile through the portal and it blew up the ships that were controlling the Chitauri. And that's how we became 'Earth's Mightiest Heroes' and all that,"

"Stark, you must know that until we can verify that Loki hasn't done anything to your brain we can't let you do anything," Natasha said.

Tony rolled his eyes, forcing down a burst of irritation.

"But wouldn't it be better to do something, just in case I'm right?" he argued.

"I believe you, Stark," Thor said suddenly, and Tony grinned in relief. "On Asgard we have heard tell of a titan, who delights in slaughtering entire worlds, and the name 'Thanos' seems familiar. Worry not though, as soon as the Bifrost works again, I will be able to ask Heimdall to look across the stars, and see if Thanos is indeed hunting across the universe for the infinity stones,"

"What are infinity stones?" Bruce asked, and Tony couldn't quite suppress the happiness he felt at hearing his science bro speak again. Those few minutes at Strange's place hadn't been enough. This time around he wouldn't make the mistake of trying to create Ultron, and he wouldn't lose his best friend.

"They are all-powerful stones rumoured to have been created at the dawn of this universe," Thor explained. "Most believe them to be myths, but if the Tesseract is the Space Stone and Loki's sceptre contains the Mind Stone, then we may have a serious problem,"

"We _do_ have a serious problem," Tony countered. "But we have the Mind Stone, and we know where the Space and Time Stones are, so we have a head start. This time round, we might be able to defeat him,"

"Where's the Time Stone now?" Maria Hill demanded and Tony gritted his teeth. He had to say that without thinking, didn't he? Now Hydra would know that he knew the location of another infinity stone, and he really didn't want Hydra to have access to another. Them having the Mind Stone had been bad enough, and though he supposed Wanda and Pietro could have been good assets to the team he was very content to leave them in Sokovia and without any superpowers this time round.

"I can't tell you that," Tony replied flippantly. "The only people who I'm going to tell everything to are the people I trust, and I don't trust SHIELD,"

"Yet you want Loki on the team?" Steve asked and oh how much Tony wanted to shatter his faith in SHIELD, but that could wait, there was time to tell him about the phase two weapons and Hydra later.

"Yeah, I do, he's useful," Tony shrugged, swivelling in his chair more just to piss the Captain off further. He wanted to work well with him, but that didn't mean he couldn't irritate him for fun, just to see his disapproving expression.

"How can you prove my brother's innocence?" Thor questioned, his tone serious but his expression unable to hide his hope.

Tony grimaced. "Hold up there, Pikachu," and oh he had to remember to introduce Thor to Pokémon again, and inform him that it was a children's show designed to inspire kids to go on a quest to capture the animals which totally existed in real life. He couldn't wait to see Thor trying to convince the others again that hunting for Pokémon would be a far better team bonding session than another movie night. "I never said he was innocent. Like Bruce said, 'his mind's a bag full of cats' and he was fully ready to attack this planet as some kind of chaotic suicide mission just for the hell of it. What I said was that he could help us, and we need him. That doesn't mean we can trust him yet,"

Thor nodded, his face falling.

"Sir," one of the many SHIELD agents interrupted. "Loki really wants to speak with the team. He's being very insistant,"

Fury shot Tony a questioning look, he shrugged.

"Fine, put him on, let's here what the bastard has to say for himself," Fury replied.

"We've put you through," a voice said.

"Thank you," Loki said, managing to make the phrase sound like a serious insult. "Stark, have you remembered to tell these morons that Barton and the others are on their way and are due to destroy your helicarrier in the next few minutes? Or do you actually want to be divided when Selvig lets the Chitauri through? Given that you came back in time I'm going to assume that our plan failed and we didn't manage to kill you all, but if I am to join your side I would rather have you all working as a team and not have _any_ Chitauri coming to this planet,"

"Oh shit," Tony said, leaping to his feet.

"I can already tell it will be a joy to work with you," Loki's voice replied disparagingly.

"Stark, what's happening?" Steve demanded.

"Hawkeye's coming to take out the front-left engine of the Helicarrier!" Tony replied, running for the exit. "Keep everyone calm and away from the sceptre!"

"What are you doing?"

"Getting to the suit,"

He couldn't wait until he had the shrapnel removed and the nanotech implanted instead, then he wouldn't have to waste all his time actually getting to his armour.

"Come on, come on, come on…" he muttered as the suit encased him agonisingly slowly. "Jarvis?"

"Sir?"

And oh, Tony could have cried! Vision was great, but no one could ever compare to his AI. He would never, ever try to create something like Ultron again.

"Sir, are you alright?"

"Never better, J," Tony said, and it was true. He had another one of his best friends back. But that didn't matter now, what mattered was stopping Barton.

Tony flew down the halls and out of the helicarrier, almost knocking over countless SHIELD employees with, in Tony's opinion, irritatingly slow reflexes.

He looked around to see Clint in the open quinjet, bow and arrow ready. Tony sent full power into his thrusters and flew straight at him.

Clint looked towards the unexpected movement and his arrow changed course, headed straight for Tony. Tony blew it up with some flares before it could hit him, flying straight through the explosion and slowing down at the last second before shoving Clint into the quinjet's wall. He grimaced as he looked down at Clint's prone body, hopefully he hadn't hit him too hard, he did like the archer after all.

As he set to cognitively recalibrating the other SHIELD agents Jarvis interrupted him.

"Sir, I know you said not to bother you with issues like this, but I feel I should inform you that Stark Industries has received multiple voicemails from a Dr Stephen Strange, he seems to have a lot of information on the Tesseract and Loki's sceptre,"

"Fantastic," Tony said, knocking another out with a repulsor blast to the head. "Call him back, will you,"

Less than one ring later Stephen's voice filled the line.

"Tony, did you get back okay?"

"Sure did," he replied, depositing the pilot's unconscious form unceremoniously onto the floor and taking control of the quinjet. "What are things like at your end?"

"I am currently stuck in the hospital, Christine's very concerned," he said, his tone irritated. "Are the Chitauri coming or have you managed to secure Loki's compliance? I'd like to travel to Kathmandu as soon as they let me out of here. I miss my sling ring, and the cloak, and want the advice of the Ancient One,"

"Loki's on our side now, as long as we can round up his minions before they open the portal we should be able to stop the Battle of New York before it begins," Tony said as he brought the quinjet into land. "So have fun travelling, keep me updated etc., gotta go now, SHEILD's here,"

"Stark, wait,"

"For what? I thought you didn't want them to know wizards exist?"

"I'm a 'Master of the Mystic Arts',"

"You're a Wizard, Stephen," Tony replied, reopening the back of the quinjet and stepping out onto the windswept landing strip.

"How much have you told them, do they know where the Time Stone is?"

"Nothing, it's fine," Tony rolled his eyes. "End call… that was Pepper, she worries," he said to a SHIELD agent who had just arrived.

Then it hit him. Pepper, oh he needed to see Pepper!

The last conversation he'd had with his fiancée replayed itself in his mind. But… they weren't even engaged anymore, were they? They were still in the early stages of their relationship, the last thing he'd said here had been something about her getting 12% of the credit, hadn't it?

He rolled his eyes at his former self. Pepper deserved so much more than that, and this time, he would do better; he wouldn't buy her a giant rabbit, wouldn't summon his suit in his sleep, it would be okay.

So, next plan: call Pepper.

 _ **So, I hope you enjoyed that!**_

 _ **Next up: The Avengers argue about how to stop Thanos, Stephen travels to Kathmandu and Peter Parker has the best eleventh birthday ever on a school trip to Stark Tower.**_


	3. Peter Parker's Best Birthday Ever

_**Sorry this took a while to get out, I have been ill and busy and yeah life.**_

 _ **Anyways, though the start of the Peter Parker scene may seem a bit angsty at times, rest assured that it is very fluffy in general, and this chapter is called 'Peter Parker's Best Birthday Ever' for a reason.**_

 _ **Also, I really can't believe this story is doing so well, so just a massive thank you to all of you from the bottom of my heart, you guys are incredible!**_

 _ **15/05/2018**_

 **Chapter 3 – Peter Parker's Best Birthday Ever**

"I thought we _didn't_ want Thanos to get the infinity stones," Bruce said, rubbing a tired hand over his face and slumping back into the couch.

"Thanos won't get the infinity stones," Steve countered.

"Are you forgetting that…"

Tony groaned and zoned out of the conversation. For the past few hours they had just been going round and round the same 'solutions' that they'd discussed before, with the same arguments.

Tony glanced across at Loki, who had stopped bothering to listen even before Tony had, or was at least giving off that impression. He was draped over an armchair, reading a book (and who even read books anymore?), the magic dampening cuffs Tony had spent several days improving from the bulky ones Thor had presented him with glinting on his wrists. The cuffs had been an intrinsic part of the agreement that allowed Loki to stay at the tower and help them (not that he'd actually done much more than make disparaging comments so far) and one that Clint was absolutely not willing to budge on.

Speaking of, Clint was still watching Loki closely, and Tony was willing to bet that his eyes hadn't even left the Asgardian to look at the evidence board that stood in the middle of the room.

Despite Tony's protests that they could totally just use his holograms, the others had insisted on setting up an actual evidence board, complete with pieces of string linking evidence together. Privately, Tony had to admit that it did look pretty cool.

"Stark!" a frustrated voice snapped him out of his thoughts and he turned round to Cap.

"Yes dear?" he questioned, his default response slipping easily through his lips, Cap's jaw tightened.

"This is _your_ problem, and I had to call you five times, are you even taking this seriously?"

"I don't know, Steve, am I?" he snapped. "We've been through this countless times already and all we're doing is coming up with the same points,"

"At least we're _trying_ ," Steve shot back. "And what are you doing? Inviting elementary schoolers round to show off your science and boost your ego!"

"Maybe it's important to inspire young minds to advance science? What with Thanos coming to kill half of us and all. If we fail, we need people who will continue to fight, and have the ability to do so,"

"If we fail, we fail together," Cap replied tersely. "I'm not bringing child soldiers into this. If we let a kid die…"

"Well, newsflash Cap, we're not enough, we _fail_ ," Tony said, and he was definitely _not_ thinking about Peter crumbling to dust in his arms, his last words an apology, as if this could in any way be his fault. "And we don't fail together, we fail at opposite ends of the universe. So if some kid has a revolutionary way to protect the earth, I'm all for it,"

"It's not right,"

"Neither is letting Thanos destroy half the people in the universe,"

Tony supposed he should work on not letting Steve get to him, especially as they needed to work together to defeat Thanos and they couldn't afford to fall out again. Plus Cap was right, having elementary schools visiting his lab in the hope that one of them might come up with something somewhere down the line that would help them fight Thanos would be a stupid idea. It was just so he could see Peter again, so he could see him safe and innocent and happy and know that he would be okay. To give Steve some credit, despite his determination to provoke Tony, he had actually listened to him (after a lot of pleading that the other avengers eventually joined in on) and hadn't gone off to rescue Bucky upon learning of his best friend's survival. So, it turned out that the captain could be reasonable when it came down to the Winter Solider. Who knew? Tony was sure this had to be a first, but it boded well for future cooperation.

"Howard wouldn't have done this," Steve said and seriously all Tony could do was stare at him. Right, Howard would _never_ pressure a kid into being good at science.

"If you're going to start another civil war." Stephen thankfully spoke up from a screen at the side of the room, less than a moment before Tony would have said something that would have made the situation even worse. "I would like to visit the New York Sanctum at some point today, so if you would let me leave…"

"What?" Steve questioned, his tone innocently confused, as Tony rolled his eyes.

"You know what Stephen, go visit the Sanctum, it's not like we're gonna get much further today, and we need the Ancient One's advice. Call us back when you've spoken to her, yeah?"

"Will do," Stephen replied, and ended the video call. Great, there went the last voice of reason.

"I need to prepare for the visit tomorrow," Tony said, standing up and stretching, sighing as his back clicked. He looked around at them all as he sauntered backwards towards the elevator. "Jarvis will call a meeting again when Strange gets back to us. Until then, enjoy your floors and all the conveniences of my tower and don't do anything stupid,"

And with that Tony stepped into the elevator, letting out a sigh of relief once the doors had slid shut and he was left alone with Jarvis.

"Peter's still on the class list for the trip, right J?" he asked.

"Yes, sir," Jarvis replied. "But are you sure you want to do this?"

-AC-

Stephen took a deep breath as he strode through the busy streets which led to the New York Sanctum.

This could either go very well, or very badly. Kaecilius and his followers had killed everyone who had worked in the Sanctum in 2017, before Stephen had had chance to meet any of them, so he had no idea what sort of people they were and if they would believe him. Hopefully, if he showed off his magic and knowledge of the Infinity Stones they would let him through the gateway into Kamar-Taj and he would get to speak to the Ancient One. After all, what was the point of catching a plane when he could use a magical doorway or get hold of a sling ring?

The only person Stephen was worried about was Kaecilius, but he was probably at Kamar-Taj with the Ancient One at this point, or maybe he had already broken with the rest of the Sorcerers and gone off with his band of followers?

He knew that he was lucky that this time round he had time, there was a good chance that he would be able to save the Ancient One, and preventing himself from having to relive being killed time and time again by Dormammu could only be a good thing.

Stephen sighed as he made his way up the steps to the Sanctum. He really did not want to have to deal with anyone in the Sanctum right now. All he wanted to do was grab his cloak and go through a doorway. He really missed his cloak.

Tapping his foot impatiently he pressed the doorbell and looked around at the bustling street as he waited for somebody to answer it.

"Yes?" someone said, opening the door.

He turned around.

Ah.

This would complicate things.

"Who are you and what do you want?" Kaecilius asked, clearly irritated at Stephen's lack of reply but looking far more normal without the forehead marking or purple rings around his eyes.

Well, it was a good thing he excelled at keeping calm in dangerous situations. "My name is Dr Stephen Strange. I would like to speak to the Ancient One,"

"I've never met you in any of the Sanctums before, as far as I'm aware you've never studied under the Ancient One, and this is not usually the place people travel to when wishing to see her," Kaecilius frowned. "Why do you want to speak with her? She has many things to balance and I don't want to waste her time unnecessarily,"

"You have doors, don't you?" Stephen said, and Kaecilius looked at him in interest. "I have studied under her, in the future. I came back to warn everyone, we face an extra-terrestrial threat in the form of a titan trying to hunt down all the Infinity Stones. I need to talk to her," he said drily, thinking it best to get straight to the point.

"How do I know you're telling the truth? That you don't just want access to the relics in this building?"

"You don't," Stephen replied, trying to keep his irritation in check. Clearly, Kaecilius knew something was off (notably the fact that he was finding it very difficult to pretend that he didn't hate Kaecilius) and Stephen doubted he would let him in if the conversation continued like this. "But if I prove to be a threat I trust she has enough power to deal with me,"

"What do you know of the Ancient One's power?"

"What do you know of the Dark Dimension?"

For the first time since the start of their conversation Kaecilius appeared alarmed.

"Nothing. But as the Master of this Sanctum, I think you should leave," he threatened. "Unless you want to test your powers against mine and, if need be, the rest of the people and relics that reside here,"

"You've got to be kidding,"

"I swore an oath to protect this place, I cannot let you in," he said and Stephen wished the Cloak would break out of its case and strangle Kaecilius. "If you want to see her, you can go to her directly, I will not give you access to this place,"

Stephen took a step forward and suddenly felt himself thrown backwards down the steps. He caught himself with his magic before he could hit the sidewalk hard, but when he looked up, the door of the Sanctum was closed.

This did not bode well.

What would Kaecilius do? Would he travel to warn the Ancient One of him, would he do more research into the Infinity Stones, would he try to contact Dormammu earlier that he had done the last time round?

The most problematic question though, was why Kaecilius had reacted the way he had. Strange had thrown that piece of information at him in the hope that Kaecilius would trust him and think them both to be on the same side. Had he spooked him as Kaecilius thought his plans had been discovered?

Or had he just sent Kaecilius on a premature path into darkness by providing him with information linking the Ancient One and the Dark Dimension?

Stephen gritted his teeth and set off in search of a taxi that could take him to the airport.

-AC-

Peter Parker hadn't been able to stop bouncing around since his arrival at Stark Tower, he was so excited, he couldn't believe he was finally here, in the place where his idol built some of his inventions!

He felt like there was constantly something to gape at, from the helpful AI that introduced himself as Jarvis that informed his teacher which floor to take them up to, to the lab safety briefing that was given to them using holograms! Actual holograms!

"Isn't this _so cool_?" his friend, Will, said from beside him, but Peter could do nothing more than nod in response, too caught up in watching robot arms cut pieces of metal to size behind a screen. He liked to imagine that the sheets of metal might be used in an actual Iron Man suit.

And Peter loved Iron Man.

Whatever he would hear people say, Iron Man was the best superhero, hands down. Sure, Captain America could throw a SHIELD, but what was a giant frisbee compared to a flying suit? Plus, despite everything he'd seen at the Stark Expo, Stark Tech was still definitely the coolest, and all the stuff he could see here was only backing that knowledge up.

At that moment, the door to the lab slid open and Tony Stark strolled in. Peter gasped, his eyes wide, he had never been this close to his hero before. Well, never that close to him when he wasn't in the Iron Man suit.

"Hey kids," Mr Stark said, smiling at them all. "I'm Tony Stark, as I hope you all know given that you're in my tower. I hope you've all watched the safety briefing carefully as if you get hurt that's a lot of paperwork for your teachers, who I must say are looking stunning today, and me; so if you could not get yourselves killed that would be great. Has everyone got their name badges on?"

Peter glanced down to the sticky label with his name on that he'd stuck proudly to his t-shirt. It had the Stark Industries logo at the top left corner and Peter couldn't help but grin happily every time he looked at it. He was never getting rid of it. He had already decided that it would be displayed in pride of place, on the frame of the picture of him and Aunt May smiling at the Stark Expo before the bad suits had attacked.

Aunt May seemed to think he should be very upset about the attack, but Peter wasn't. It had been so exciting, he had felt like a superhero facing danger head-on!

"Wonderful," Tony said in response to the chorus of 'yes' that came from his class. "So, if you guys want to follow me into the lab where we've been developing the very latest in robotics technology,"

Peter bounced along beside Will as the rowdy crowd of grade fives made their way out of the room and along the corridor.

"Mr Stark, are we going to get to see the Iron Man suit?" Jessica demanded, and Peter marvelled at how she had the courage to speak to Mr. Stark. He wanted to be brave, just like Mr Stark was, but he was fairly sure he would just loose all his words and end up looking like a fish if he tried to ask Mr Stark any questions about how the repulsor technology worked, which he really wanted to do. Circuits were fairly easy, but he had no idea how the repulsors worked in the way Mr Stark wanted them to.

"Of course, in fact, that's the last stop on out tour," Mr Stark replied as they all crowded through the doorway into the robotics lab. And oh was it mind-blowingly awesome!

Humans worked side by side by robots, assembling what Peter assumed were prototypes of various tech. Peter knew exactly what he wanted to do when he grew up. Well, he wanted to work with Mr Stark more, but no one had designed stuff with him since Mr Stane had died in an accident. Peter thought it was sad that Mr Stane had died. Mr Stark's parents had died, just like Peter's had, and Peter liked to believe that Obadiah Stane had been there for Mr Stark like Aunt May had been for him. Somehow he doubted it though, there was just something he didn't trust about the old photos of the man.

"Well, here's the room where our top engineers like to test out their ideas for products and see if they can be easily made and assembled. Who can guess what this woman is making?" Mr Stark asked, and Peter really hoped it wasn't his imagination that Mr Stark was looking at him so much, almost as if he wanted Peter to answer the question.

"Is it a robot puppy?" Sam called out.

"Yeah it is," Tony said, turning towards Sam. "Good job kid,"

Sam grinned from ear to ear and Peter desperately wished he had answered the question, he had known the answer after all. But whether or not he did get to speak to Mr Stark, this was still the best birthday ever. He'd never, ever been somewhere so cool!

"Mr Stark, sir," Flash, a kid who had recently transferred into Peter class, asked. Peter scowled, in the week that he'd been in their class Flash had been really mean to Peter and his friends, as if he thought that he would fit in if he was horrible to people. Why did Flash get to ask him a question and Peter was still too terrified to? Next time, Peter decided, he would get up his courage and talk to Mr Stark. "Is it true that Peter helped you fight robots at the Expo, because that's all Peter's been talking about, and I know he's lying,"

Miss Calin's admonition of "Flash!" meant nothing to Peter. This had now become his worst birthday ever, he wished the floor would swallow him up, Mr Stark would never remember him, and all he would think of Peter was that he was some horrible liar.

"You were the kid in the Iron Man suit, right kid?" Mr Stark said, and Peter looked up to see Mr Stark looking straight at him, smiling encouragingly. Peter nodded. "Sure I remember you, like I said, 'nice work, kid', you did a great job fighting those suits, Peter,"

Peter gaped at him. Tony Stark _actually_ remembered him. And he thought he'd done well!

This was, without doubt, the best birthday that Peter Parker had ever had.

And suddenly everyone in the class was congratulating him, saying how awesome he was. Peter beamed. Flash stood at the edge of the crowd, looking murderously at him, but Peter didn't even care.

"You know, it's not cool to be an ass to other people," Peter heard Mr Stark tell Flash over the noise of his class. "Trust me, it won't get you any friends,"

Flash scowled.

"So Peter, what did you like best about the Expo?" Mr Stark asked him and Peter didn't even have to think before telling him.

"I really liked all the robots!" he exclaimed, a bit stuttery at first but soon getting over his nerves. "Especially the Stark Industries ones as they are _so_ much better than the ones made by other companies. They have a way higher processing speed and I think it is really awesome how most of them have a basic AI installed so they can respond to your commands.

"The robot puppies were the best because they move almost like a real puppy and they can even do tricks. Also, one of the people there showed me a diagram of a section of their circuits and I think I almost understood it! I think now I might be able to because I have read loads about circuits…"

-AC-

Peter stuck close to the front of the group and near Mr Stark for the rest of the trip. He noticed that although Mr Stark tried to talk to all of his classmates (except for Flash) he seemed to take the most interest in him, and he even knew his name without having to look at his name badge, which Peter thought was really cool! Mr Stark asked him loads of questions, even about stuff that Peter knew was much too difficult for other children his age (though Flash tried to butt in a few times Mr. Stark ignored him. Peter found this funny, though he did feel a bit bad for Flash, he was new after all) and he never, ever made Peter feel stupid, even though Peter knew that Mr Stark was so much smarter than he was.

Maybe the best part of the day was just before they went to look at the Mark 2 Iron Man suit. On hearing that it was his birthday, Mr Stark just reached across a table and deposited a robot puppy and wireless charger into Peters arms with a 'figure out how it works, kid'. Peter stared at the puppy that he now cradled in his arms as some of his classmates protested at their lack of robots.

"It was my birthday last Monday!" Jessica complained. "Why don't I get a robot!"

Miss Calin shushed her as Mr Stark said easily, "yeah, but it's not your birthday today. Besides, everyone on this tour gets 80% of Stark Industries products,"

Peter was certain that Mr Stark had just made that up to make his classmates feel better but he didn't care. "Thank you," he breathed, gazing at his hero in wonder. Mr Stark just ruffled his hair and smiled, before leading the class on to see the Mark 2.

Peter just stood there as the class moved forwards without him, shifting his dog under one arm and gently touching his hair that was fluffed up more than usual with the other.

"Are you okay, Peter?" Miss Calin asked. Peter nodded, grinning ecstatically before running to catch up with Mr Stark.

-AC-

Tony stood at the end of the corridor, watching as the class filed into the elevator in small batches, a half-smile on his face. It had been great seeing Peter this young, still full of joy, and though he knew that if he let Thanos win Peter would surely fade into dust again, right now things were okay, Peter was still a fairly carefree excitable child. He vowed to commit Peter's expressions to memory, especially the ones he'd shown when he'd asked him about the Expo or given him the dog. He should have spent more time with the older Peter when he was still alive, bought him more stuff.

He was glad that he had actually managed to have a positive influence on Peter Parker's life for once though.

The question was, could he really let the kid go? Tony's heart ached at the thought of never seeing him again. No, it was better this way. There was no chance of screwing up Peter's life if he wasn't in it. But maybe he could organise some kind of competition, or maybe an internship for gifted kids?

"Mr Stark?" one of the adults leading the group, Emma Calin, Tony thought she was called, approached him. He raised a questioning eyebrow. "I just wanted to say thank you for taking such an interest in Peter today. He's too quiet, and much too clever compared to the other kids, so it was great to hear him talk with such confidence today about the things that interest him. I think he feels left out from the loss of his parents too, and his aunt works too much, and ugh, anyways...just thank you for talking so much with Peter, I think it's been a really great experience for him,"

"No problem," Tony replied, making sure to sound like her words weren't affecting him.

 _Damn it,_ he thought, ignoring the rest of what Emma was saying. He couldn't not organise an internship now.

 _ **I hope you all enjoyed the chapter!**_

 _ **Next up: Tony and Pepper discuss where their relationship stands**_

 _ **Stephen arrives at Kamar-Taj**_

 _ **Until next time!**_


	4. Kamar-Taj

**_Hi everyone, my exams and my summer job from hell are officially over, I am now back at uni and my hiatus is officially over! I'm not sure if I will be updating every week or every other week, we shall see how things go and then I'll stick to a schedule!_**

 ** _I realise it's been a while since I updated, so, here's a summary to jog your memory:_**

 ** _\- Tony and Stephen have come back in time to the middle of the Avengers. Tony has told SHIELD/the Avengers about Thanos._**

 ** _\- The Avengers (plus Loki) are trying to come up with a solution, but they're arguing too much to get anywhere._**

 ** _\- Dr Strange is trying to alert the Ancient One to Thanos._**

 ** _\- In doing so he met Kaecilius (who is working at the New York Sanctum) and thinks he might have accidentally sent him down the path of evil sooner than in the last timeline._**

 ** _\- Peter Parker (11) has had the best birthday ever, meeting Mr Stark on a school trip round Stark Tower._**

 ** _Before I get on with the chapter, I just want to say that I'm blown away by all the reviews, follows and favourites! It's completely insane and I love you all!_**

 ** _Also, I realise this chapter is angsty af in parts, but this is literally the worst this story will be and literally everything will basically be resolved and happy in chapter five. I just felt I needed to say that given that I'm meant to be fixing IW not giving you all more pain!_**

 ** _15/10/2018_**

 **Chapter Four – Kamar-Taj**

Tony looked up in shock as the deafening tones of Black Sabbath cut out abruptly. Ears ringing slightly in the silence, he scanned the room, his gaze quickly landing on Pepper, standing by the door, her arms crossed, an expression of mingled concern and disappointment on her face.

"You can't keep avoiding me, Tony," Pepper said, and Tony opened his mouth to protest that that wasn't true, he hadn't been avoiding her, before closing it again, realising that was exactly what he'd been doing. The hardest person to talk to was Pepper, they'd been about to be married, and now look where they were, so much time erased. And what was Tony even meant to tell her? That they'd been engaged? Was he meant to lie to her? No. Hiding from his problems had been easier. "…listening to me? God, Tony, I know all the stuff about SHIELD must have been stressful but you can't hide down here and not sleep for three days!"

"Well, you know how it is, Pep," Tony said, having no idea what he was going to say, but figuring that his brain would make up something appropriate as it went along. "I've been-"

"Are those…are you making weapons again?" Pepper interrupted, looking horrified and staring at the plans on the nearest hologram. Tony was grateful that Pepper was fully on board with the new direction of SI (he hadn't been able to remember if she had been at this point) but he sighed at the thought of having done something else that might damage his relationship with her.

"There are things out there, aliens. I _need_ to make these, we won't stand a chance if I don't. No one will!"

Pepper started to look panicked at these words, before sighing and pulling herself together.

"When are these aliens coming?"

"In six years or so, maybe sooner."

Pepper nodded. "Then you have time. Tony come to bed, please, and then talk to me about all this in the morning. You need rest, and you can't ignore me, you can't leave me in the dark like you've been doing!"

Tony considered this, remembering the last time he'd slept, nightmares of Peter turning into dust, waking to find Pepper turned to dust beside him, waking for real in the throes of a panic attack.

"Could we just go for a coffee instead?" Tony suggested and watched as Pepper grimaced, clearly weighing up the pros and cons of giving into his request.

"Okay," she said, her resolve falling away. "As long as we go to the nice coffee shop five blocks away and Happy drives us."

-AC-

They sat in the window seats of the coffee shop, chatting far more easily than Tony had been expecting. Tony was inhaling his second mug of coffee (and Pepper was right, they did do nice coffee here) while Pepper sat across from him, smiling softly as she elegantly spooned another forkful of chocolate cake into her mouth. Tony was waiting on a toastie; Pepper had been very insistent that he would have to eat properly before he chose one of the shops desserts. He had grumbled about Pepper treating him like a child, but he had to admit that maybe she was right, he hadn't eaten in over 24 hours after all (Jarvis had informed him that infrequently snacking on blueberries didn't count as eating).

"How did the school visit go?" Pepper asked, taking a sip of coffee.

"It went really well," Tony said, before thanking the barista that had just brought his toastie over, casually handing her an extra 50 dollar tip.

"I have to admit that I was really surprised when I saw it on your schedule."

"Well, it was a but of a spur of the moment decision, you know."

Pepper smiled in understanding. "What isn't a spur of the moment decision for you?" she asked. "Do you think you'll be running any more visits?"

"No, I don't think so," Tony replied. "I was thinking that maybe I should set up some sort of Stark Internship, make it available to gifted kids with low incomes."

Pepper thought for a moment. "It's a nice idea Tony, but this is these kids' lives you're talking about here, if you start this you've got to commit, you can't drop it if you get bored."

"I wouldn't" Tony said firmly, thinking of Peter's delighted expression as he quizzed him about circuits.

"Okay," Pepper said, somewhat reluctantly. "I'll set up some meetings for you with people who work with the kind of kids you're talking about, see what we can do."

Tony nodded, scarfing down his toastie. It was weird how when he got caught up in his work he didn't often notice he was hungry until he actually started to eat. Now he was eating he realised that he'd been starving.

"We also need to think about if your work will put any of these kids in danger, they're already in vulnerable positions and if some types of people find out about the internship they're going to be under a lot of pressure."

"It'll be fine," Tony said. "We'll just get Jarvis to monitor them and Happy to check in frequently."

"I'm not sure Happy will be the best person for that," Pepper said, glancing over to where he was glaring suspiciously round the shop.

"Sure he is," Tony said flippantly. "Happy's the most dedicated security guy I've ever met. Remember when he thought the take-out guy looked shady and ended up in hospital because he ate the pizza meant for our date night. _Jarvis_ didn't even pick up on that and every time I order food he's… Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Happy… was _poisoned_?"

"Yeah, don't you remember it was…" Too late, Tony realised his mistake, the pizza incident had taken place a few weeks after he had finally had all the repairs done to his tower. _After_ the New York invasion. "A dream… it must have been a dream."

Pepper looked concerned. Great. "Tony, I know you don't want to see anyone, but maybe you should, because if you don't even remember what's real anymore… I'm sure SHIELD could find you someone who'd be totally confidential."

"Pepper," Tony sighed, thinking about how they hadn't got anywhere on solving the Hydra problem yet. "I don't trust anyone, but I trust SHIELD even less. All they'll do is pass my information on and make a file on me."

Pepper's face fell and Tony grimaced internally, he didn't want to disappoint Pepper. Not when he knew everything that could happen between them.

"Could you talk to me? Any of the Avengers? Bruce seems nice. Perhaps you could try pills, you've been drinking a lot less alcohol recently, so they might be safe."

Tony pointedly ignored the fact that the only reason he'd been able to sleep three nights ago was because he'd opened the liquor cabinet in the tower and got absolutely smashed. Pepper didn't need to know that, didn't need to know that he'd slipped up (apparently he'd been going through a good patch drinking-wise in early 2012, he didn't remember too clearly, but he was sure that that had stopped after the invasion and the arrival of his nightmares about the wormhole).

"I _can't_!" Tony said, slightly more loudly desperately than he'd meant to, and the conversations around them quietened a bit.

"Tony, please, tell me a way that I can help!" Pepper begged as hopefully everyone went back to ignoring them. Tony could see the Pepper that couldn't cope as he began to fall apart after New York the first time round. He couldn't let that happen.

He needed to talk to her. Every time their relationship had threatened to come falling apart last time had been because he was keeping things to himself, hoping to deal with it on his own. All that had done was push Pepper away.

"Okay," Tony said. "I'll tell you what happened. Just… not here."

-AC-

The mood in the car on the way home had been tense and awkward. Tony figuring out how much he was going to say but not being able to come up with a good answer - the only thing he had decided on was 'stay away from Aldrich Killian…also we should take over his company as he's experimenting on people and we need to stop it, but I forgot about that because I was too focused on Peter and Thanos'. Pepper nervous and wondering about what exactly Tony was going to reveal to her.

Once they had got to the safety of their penthouse apartment Tony had started to talk and hadn't stopped, deciding to tell Pepper everything that had happened that he could think of and just seeing where that left him.

"We were _engaged_?" Pepper interrupted his ramblings, sounding more hysterical than she had done during any of her earlier queries. And oh yeah, Tony had been planning to skip out that one. At least, for now.

"Yeah, we were," Tony said, realising that he couldn't exactly backtrack here.

"Oh my God," Pepper said. "The other things I could deal with but this? _This_?"

"Pep, honey, it's fine. It's years in the future and lots of stuff happened before that and I know that we're not ready for that now and-"

"No! You don't get it!" Pepper said, sounding distraught. "This is the future, it already happened. I feel like I don't have a choice in any of this, what do I do? Do I marry you because that's what I did…will do, even though that isn't me. I feel like my choices are being taken away by someone who is me, but not me. If I choose not to marry you will it be because I don't want to do what the future tells me to do? Would we have been happy together?"

"Pep, please, calm down, it's okay!" Tony said, unsure of what to do with the usually unflappable Pepper Potts standing in front of him completely freaking out.

"I feel like I've had all my choices taken away from me! I'm sorry, Tony, really I am! I just, I need to think! I need to go, and I need to think through this and get my head on straight! I'm sorry!" And with these words Tony watched Pepper basically fleeing the apartment, shaky and overwhelmed.

What had he done? Had he ruined everything he had with Pepper? No, it would be okay. Pepper had taken breaks from him in the future, and they had always come back together in the end. It would be fine, wouldn't it? Ugh, he needed not to think.

Tony strode over to the bar and opened up a scotch, who knew, maybe this time he drank himself into oblivion he wouldn't get nightmares.

-AC-

Stephen stood outside the door to Kamar-Taj, taking a deep breath before knocking. Who knew what Kaecilius would have told the Ancient One in the time he'd taken to get from New York to Kathmandu. He would have taken one of Stark's private jets to save time, but they were wary of Hydra getting wind of a connection between the two of them. For now, it was better to stay under the radar, especially as Tony was certain that Hydra would already be incredibly suspicious of Tony and wanting to find out as much information about him and his contacts as possible. According to Tony, his mere existence was proof that Project Insight hadn't worked.

He knocked on the door and waited.

To his delight it was Wong that opened it.

"Hi, I'm Dr Stephen Strange and I'm here to see the Ancient One." Stephen said, getting straight to the point.

"What business do you have with her?" Wong asked, frowning in suspicion.

"I'm here to see her for her help in stopping an intergalactic genocide."

Wong considered him. "Kaecilius warned us of you."

"Which is exactly why I wish to speak with him," the Ancient One's voice floated round the door. "Open the door and let him in, if he does mean harm he is no match for the whole Sanctum."

Wong opened the door with only a slight hesitation and allowed Stephen to pass.

"Thank you," he said to the Ancient One. It was strange to see her, alive, looking just as she did before she died. "I need to warn you about a lot of things, and it might be best if I do so in private."

The Ancient One tilted her head. "And why might that be?"

Stephen took a look around him, but it seemed that only Wong was present. Wong could be trusted, he hadn't abandoned the cause after learning about what the Ancient One had done, not like Mordo had. Still, it was best to be careful. "It concerns your longevity."

"I see," The Ancient one replied, calm despite the veiled accusation of knowledge. "In that case I agree with you." She cast a portal with her sling ring and led him into what Stephen knew were her private chambers. When the portal had closed behind him she turned to him and said seriously, "Now, tell me everything you know."

"I've come from the future. There, there is a mad Titan named Thanos, he seeks to eradicate half the universe, thinking that if half the people die then that will solve the issues of the lack of ressources."

The Ancient One shook her head. "That makes no sense at all."

"Hence the 'mad'," Stephen said drily. "I presume you know of the Infinity Stones, given that you house one in the library."

"I do," she replied. "But what do you know of them?"

"It's a long story which I'm going to need to fill you in on, but I've used the time stone several times in protection of this realm. Before I came back, I had the Eye of Aggamodo under my protection. Before Thanos stole it, that was."

"Under your protection; where was I?"

"Dead," Stephen replied bluntly.

"I assumed as much," the Ancient One said, not looking particularly disappointed. "You're going to need to tell me everything, how you came to be here, what happened with the time stone, how I died – it is not wise to meddle too much with time but I am assuming you want me alive if you are telling me all of this – what happened with Kaecilius, I know he is up to something, but what it is I am unsure. And especially what is happening with this Titan.

And so, sparing no details, Stephen told her.

-AC-

The next day found Tony swooping through the sky, mentally preparing himself for another team meeting from hell and hoping the flight would calm his racing thoughts and get rid of his hangover. It was by no means the worst headache he'd ever had, but if it would go away, thinking would definitely become easier. His brain felt sluggish, like if he tried to produce any weapons this morning they would be no better than the ones Hammer made, and Tony was not okay with that.

"Sir," Jarvis said and Tony winced at the volume. "There's been an accident on 43rd Street."

"Jarvis, unless it's aliens, I don't want to know," Tony grumbled. "I don't do accidents, we have ambulances and cops for that stuff."

"Sir, Mr P-"

"Jarvis mu-"

"-arker is at the scene and-"

"What did you say?"

"I said, Mr Parker, the boy that you say will become Spiderman, is at the scene and appears uninjured but quite distraught."

"Plot me a flight-path J, stat."

Two minutes later found Tony, frantic, landing at an intersection in between various ambulances and a playpark and scanning the area for a small, dark-haired child.

Before he had barely had the chance to register his surroundings he was surprised by a small object barrelling into him. It was only his quick mind that stopped him reflexively attacking a sobbing Peter Parker in self-defence.

He lifted up his mask. "Kid, what's happening? Are you okay? What's going on?"

"She's in an ambulance, she's not waking up!" Peter all but screamed. "It's my fault I wanted to go to the park and we were trying to cross the road but…but…" he finished, dissolving into tears.

"It's okay, it's going to be okay," Tony said, as reassuringly as he could, gently resting a gloved hand on the kid's head. "What's going on?" he asked a policewoman that was hovering nearby, looking unsure as to what she was meant to do in this situation.

"His aunt was hit by a drunk driver, she's in a stable condition, but she's not waking up. The medics are worried it might be a coma."

Tony nodded. "Any medical bills she needs, charge them to me. You do anything you can to make her better."

The woman nodded and left, walking in the direction of the ambulances.

"It'll be okay kid, you'll see," Tony said, hugging the kid back as best he could without crushing him. "Aunt May is going to get better. Everything will be fine."

 _ **I'm sorry! I swear she's going to be fine I just needed a way for Peter to live in the tower and bond with Tony for a bit! Please don't kill me!**_

 _ **Also, this fic is marked Pepperony, so please don't panic. I needed Pepper to freak out as otherwise it didn't seem realistic.**_

 _ **That being said, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter!**_

 _ **Next up: Tony takes Peter to the tower and tries to figure out how best to help him.**_

 _ **Stephen discusses what to do about Kaecilius with the Ancient One.**_


	5. Emergency Guardianship

_Haha remember months ago when I was like 'yeah idk if I'll update every week or every other week'...that clearly went out the window. What can I say except my life kinda went to shit? I've been a wreck. A friend died around a week after I published the last chapter, I'm super worried that other people I care about will do too, and coupled with lingering anxiety and self-hatred from time living/working in France over the summer (just because I know exactly what emotional abuse is and read/write about it a lot doesn't mean I am good at going 'hey, maybe you didn't deserve any of it and you are not a complete failure of a human being?' to myself) I kinda spiralled into the worst depression I've ever had. So...there's that... I'm doing a lot better now though, so I am hoping to be able to give more regular updates._

 **So... what's happened in fic so far?**  
 **\- Tony and Stephen have come back in time to the middle of the Avengers. Tony has told SHIELD/the Avengers about Thanos.**  
 **\- The Avengers (plus Loki) are trying to come up with a solution, but they're arguing too much to get anywhere**  
 **\- Dr Strange is trying to alert the Ancient One to Thanos.**  
 **\- In doing so he meets Kaecilius (who is working at the New York Sanctum) and thinks he might have accidentally sent him down the path of evil sooner than in the last timeline.**  
 **\- Peter Parker (11) has had the best birthday ever, meeting Mr Stark on a school trip round Stark Tower.**  
 **\- Tony opens up to Pepper about time-travelling. She needs time to think things through.**  
 **\- Stephen tells the Ancient One about what happened with Kaecilius and with Thanos.**  
 **\- Aunt May gets hit by a drunk driver and is in a coma (sorry! I swear she'll be fine!) Tony comforts Peter**

 _To the guest the flamed me (and whose review I've now deleted) thank you. Your review was hilarious, super ironic, I had a good laugh with my housemates, and it made my morning. Thanks for your 'concern', and, on the off-chance that you read this, please see chapter 3 as I believe that will address your issues. However, my main point for replying is that fanfic is meant to be **fun** , I don't give a damn (especially as you were so blatantly wrong), but you could really put someone off writing fanfic due to comments like that, especially if they haven't had much experience or response to their stories, and that's unfair. If you see something you think could be fixed, be nice and constructive and you'll get a nice and most likely grateful response back (on other stories people have told me eg. about a blatant plot hole (I was _incredibly _grateful) or that they thought a part was too rushed, and I was happy and cool with that, because it was constructive and **kind** )._

 _TLDR: if you have something horrible and pointless to say click the back button and read something else._

 _I don't usually reply to guests (though you guys are all amazing), but given how long I've spent on the one above, thank you so much to the one before the aforesaid nitwit. Your review was insightful and an absolute pleasure to read, it made me so happy! Same! I would also absolutely love to see fanart of Peter hugging Tony after the accident and of them working together in the lab! To anyone who wants to do fanart of this fic (or any of my others) you have my absolute blanket permission (just please link me afterwards at it would probably make my entire year and I would love to see it!)_

 _Furthermore, **thank you** to everyone who has left a review, I love receiving them and they always make my day and give me drive to continue with the story. I usually make a point of replying to them all, however, due to my mental state over the past few months I don't believe I've done so, and given how rushed I am right now I've decided that you all would probably prefer a chapter over a reply, so I am so sorry if you wanted me to respond!_

 _Also, thanks so much to everyone who's followed and favourited, you guys are awesome!_

 _09/02/2019_

 **Emergency Guardianship**

"Is there a reason why you're two hours late to your own meeting?" Steve said drily as Tony poured himself a glass of scotch. "Is saving the universe not interesting enough for you?"

Tony glared at him before knocking back the drink and placing it down heavily on the bar.

"Yes actually, something's come up, I need to sort it out. So, see you all later I have work to do and documents to forge," Tony replied icily, spinning around and striding towards the elevator. "Jarvis can you get a hold of a specialist in DNA testing who would be willing to be a bit free with the results for the ri-"

"DNA testing?" Clint questioned, his eyes still not leaving Loki. Loki had barely glanced up from his book when Tony had entered and was now buried deep in it again, ignoring everyone.

"What are you doing, Tony?" Bruce sighed.

"How serious is this, is this something we need to get the team on?" Steve asked.

Tony looked at them and weighed up his options. "Yeah, I guess," he shrugged and plonked himself down on a spare armchair.

"Okay, so, the kid's aunt's in a coma, she's gonna stay that way for a while, he doesn't have any other family and I figure I need a fool-proof way to convince everyone that I'm his dad so he-"

"No," Loki interrupted vehemently. "A lie like that is unforgivable. How could you even suggest such a thing, Stark?"

Everyone stared at Loki in shock.

"Showing compassion for us ants now?" Clint snarked.

Loki snarled at him, looking as if he were ready to pounce, perhaps more to unnerve Clint than anything else, who seemed to be not-so-subtly fingering a knife.

"Despite my brother's faults in this respect he is right," Thor interjected. "You should not lie to the child about his heritage."

"Why?" Loki demanded, his eyes alight with malice. "Because it would have been so much easier to have been an only child, to not have had to pretend to care for me, or-"

"You know that is not what I meant. Why must you always twist my words, brother! I-"

"Okay, can we hold it there? This is a whole bag of cats I don't care about and we're focusing on Peter right now. Besides," Tony rolled his eyes, "I'm not gonna tell the kid I'm his real dad, just the authorities."

"Then perhaps I won't eviscerate you," Loki said, going back to his book as if nothing had happened.

Clint relaxed minutely.

"What are you gonna do when his aunt wakes up?" Natasha asked from the corner of the room. "Tell her that you're his dad too?"

Tony shrugged. "I guess, maybe not, eh I'll think about it later."

"It would be a bit of an insult to the memory of the boy's mother though, wouldn't it?" Steve asked. "People would think she had been sleeping around."

"The dead should be remembered honourably," said Thor.

Tony groaned and put his head in his hands.

"They're dead, they won't care," Natasha shrugged. "The aunt might be pissed with you if she wakes up though."

"Then tell me what I'm meant to do," Tony snapped. "Because it's the only thing I can think of. I failed the kid once, I won't do it again."

"You could try getting the court to grant you emergency guardianship," Bruce offered.

"J suggested that." Tony sighed. "I have the best lawyers in the world and even I don't think I'd be allowed to become his guardian with my reputation."

"You have to try," Steve said. Tony gritted his teeth. "If people find out that you doctored test results they might send you to jail. We can't have that, not with Thanos round the corner."

"And here was I thinking that you didn't want me subjected to the horror of prison food."

"Wouldn't it be easier to just throw loads of money at the foster system and make sure he goes to good people?" Bruce asked gently, clearly trying to be kind. "Why is it you who has to take care of him? Do you think you're ready to look after a kid? Or that we'll have the time to look after him while defeating Thanos?"

"I don't know if I'm ready," Tony replied. "But I'll make time. I can't, I _won't_ lose the kid again. I never spent enough time with him when he was alive, and then Thanos snapped his fingers and he died, in my arms!" It was at this point Tony realised he was shouting, tears forming in the corners of his eyes, but he was past the point of caring. "That kid was as good as my son and I let him die! Never again!"

Loki snorted.

"Something funny, Reindeer games?" Tony snarled.

"That he is not your blood but you consider him as good as a son. If you're so upset, have a baby with the Potts woman and you'll see that 'DNA' as you call it is far more important," Loki said with a calm that put Tony on edge. "Just save us all this drama and let us get back to Thanos."

"Because you've been _so_ helpful in our plans to defeat Thanos," Clint bit out. "Remind me why you're here instead of locked up again?"

"You need to get your head out of your ass, Lokes," Tony growled. "I don't give a shit what happened to you, I care about Peter right now. And Clint's right. You need to start helping us or maybe we can put your old magic suppressing cuffs on. Good luck reading _my_ books with those. Or maybe we'll just give you to SHIELD to dispose of as they-"

"No-one is 'disposing' of my brother!" Thor stood up quickly and Tony unconsciously took a step backwards.

"Come on Thor, how much use has he really been?" Clint asked. "All he does is insult you."

"Okay, can we all just take a breath!" a woman yelled over the rest of their voices.

Tony turned to see Pepper illuminated by the elevator lights, like an ethereal being sent to save them all.

"Pep," Tony breathed. He hadn't been expecting to see her so soon, only a day after she had said she'd needed to take a break.

"Jarvis has updated me on the situation, Tony," Pepper explained, walking over to them. "For God's sake you can't just fake a paternity test! We're going to do this _legally_ , and if it goes wrong, we're going to make sure that Peter goes to a good family."

"But-"

"We're not even going to resort to bribery, Tony." Pepper reproached. "I've set a court date for 9am in two days' time. You're going to be there, and by that time we're going to have built a solid case as to why the kid should be in your care. Your most experienced lawyers will be here in 15 minutes."

Tony wasn't usually the type to find himself at a loss for words, but at this moment he could only gape at her.

-AC-

"You okay, kid?" Tony asked as Peter threw himself into Tony's arms. He had only gotten to see the kid for a few hours yesterday and it obviously hadn't been enough for both of them.

"Yeah," Peter said, his voice muffled due to his face being pressed into Tony's best suit. The social worker primly settled herself down beside the them and nodded politely. Tony nodded back. "I'm just…what if you don't get to be my foster dad? What if I have to go back to the foster home again? I don't want to go back, the food's horrible and Kieran broke all my Legos yesterday!"

"Kid," Tony said seriously. "We're going to win this. You see Pepper over there?" Peter turned around and nodded before burying his head in Tony's suit again. "She's the smartest person I know and she is going to absolutely make sure I'm your foster Dad. And afterwards, you know what we're going to do?" Peter shook his head. "We're going to see Aunt May in the hospital and you're gonna tell her all about this, and then we're gonna go back to the tower and eat loads of junk food with the bots."

"Aunt May likes it when I eat healthy," Peter mumbled. Tony raised his eyebrows before smiling and thinking back to the kid who'd told him he couldn't go to Germany because he had homework.

"Then I guess we'll just add extra salad to out burgers," Tony said. "Sound good?"

Peter nodded enthusiastically.

Tony's jaw tightened as the judge called the session to order. He just wished he had as much confidence as he pretended to the kid that he did.

-AC-

"I suppose congratulations are in order," the social worker, who did not look at all pleased to be handing a child over to, as had been brought up on numerous occasions over the last few hours, a playboy who liked to take extreme risks with his own life. Tony didn't think he'd ever been more grateful to Pepper before, and it was definitely time to give his lawyers a significant raise.

"I would guess they are," Tony said, directing an ecstatic Peter towards the waiting car. Peter was still clinging to him like a limpet, but Tony supposed the eleven-year-old could be excused this given that his aunt was in a coma and he'd had an incredibly stressful few days. It wasn't that he minded really anyway, it proved to him that Peter was here, alive.

And Tony wasn't going to fail him this time.

 _ **So, I hope you all enjoyed that!**_

 _ **Next up: Peter gets settled in at the tower.**_

 _ **Dr Strange and the Ancient One figure out how to deal with the problem of Kaecilius.**_

 _ **Um, so, it would be great if you guys could leave a review, even if it's just a word, just so I know that you're still reading and you're still interested in where this is going. Obviously, no pressure, I used to get serious anxiety about leaving reviews so absolutely zero pressure, it would just mean so much to me if some of you could!**_


	6. Betrayal

_**What can I say except sorry. Shit things happened (see last chapter notes, I guess) but then really good things happened and I was busy with them (there were also exams *sighs*) and just so many things happened that I had no motivation for this story as I hadn't written in so long (argh!)**_  
 _ **Anyway, it's now the summer, I have no uni, and I have no job because I'm using this time to work on my writing (mostly my original work so I get money hopefully) but also fanfic as I've missed writing it! So, updates will occur At Least every fortnight.**_

 _ **So, what has happened (because even I had forgotten until I read my story again):**_  
 _ **\- Tony and Stephen (alive for to-be-explained reasons) have come back in time to the middle of the Avengers. Tony has told SHIELD/the Avengers about Thanos.**_  
 _ **\- The Avengers (plus Loki) are trying to come up with a solution, but they're arguing too much to get anywhere**_  
 _ **\- Dr Strange was trying to alert the Ancient One to Thanos.**_  
 _ **\- In doing so he met Kaecilius (who is working at the New York Sanctum) and thinks he might have accidentally sent him down the path of evil sooner than in the last timeline.**_  
 _ **\- Peter Parker (11 years old) has had the best birthday ever, meeting Mr Stark on a school trip round Stark Tower.**_  
 _ **\- Tony opens up to Pepper about time-travelling. She needs time to think things through.**_  
 _ **\- Stephen tells the Ancient One about what happened with Kaecilius and with Thanos.**_  
 _ **\- Aunt May gets hit by a drunk driver and is in a coma (sorry! I swear she'll be fine!) Tony comforts Peter**_  
 _ **\- Tony gets granted emergency guardianship of Peter.**_

 _ **Idk if I've said this before but Peter doesn't have an uncle in this timeline. I know very little about Uncle Ben and I didn't really want to have to kill him off and give Peter more grief.**_

 _ **I've done background reading into Kaecilius's arc from the tie-in comics so I hope you guys enjoy his bits!**_

 _ **Thank you all so much for all the support this story has received so far! I sincerely hope I've managed to reply to all reviews, if not, I'm really really sorry!**_

 _ **12/08/19**_

 **Chapter Six - Betrayal**

"Hey Aunt May," Peter said, curling up in a ball on the chair at her bedside and biting his lip, doing his best not to cry. "The nurse said I only have five minutes because you're technically not meant to have visitors at the moment, especially because it's not visiting hours, which sucks because I have a _lot_ to tell you, so, I guess I'll have to be quick and tell you all the important stuff first. I don't know if you can hear me, but Mr Stark said that sometimes people in comas can hear what's going on around them, so I hope you can. If you can hear me you gotta make sure you wake up soon, because I'm really happy that I get to play with all of Mr Stark's robots, but I _need_ you Aunt May, I really miss you."

Peter stopped to sniffle and rub his eyes with his sleeve.

"They took me into foster care for a few days, it wasn't very nice. The grown-ups looking after us were alright, but they weren't you, and this kid smashed up all my legos which made me really unhappy. I'd made you a really cool model for when you woke up. I'm sad you won't get to see it, but I'll make you something even more awesome with Tony, he's promised to help.

"Anyways, I need to tell you about the most awesome thing that happened today! You know how I met Mr Stark on that tour of Stark Tower and he was really really nice to me? He swooped down an Iron Man to make sure I was okay after the accident and now he's taken me into emergency guardianship! It's _so_ awesome! I'm gonna meet all his robots and he's gonna show me how his repulsors work!"

Peter bit his lip.

"I know you don't like Mr Stark as much as I do, because you think he can be silly and irresponsible, but I really like him. He's super kind to me and in court he said he was doing his best to become a good and responsible person and he'd made a lot of progress. People in the court were actually really mean to him...They said some horrible things..." He slumped and looked towards the door that Tony promised he would be waiting behind. "But you don't have to worry about me, May, I promise, because Mr Stark and Ms Potts are going to take the best care of me until you get better.

"You will get better, won't you? Because we need to get Thai food again, and you haven't showed me how to wear a tie properly yet.

"Please wake up," Peter begged, then promptly collapsed into tears

-AC-

Tony had been waiting outside the door, idly listening to Peter's conversation. He hadn't been eavesdropping purposefully, but there wasn't really much else to listen to in the area so the one-sided conversation just flowed into his ears as he flicked through his Stark Phone, sorting through the emails Pepper had forwarded on as important. His heart ached at the anguish in Peter's voice and all the kid had been through in the past few days.

As soon as Peter began to sob in earnest he rushed into the room and swept the eleven year-old up into his arms.

"Hey, kid, it's okay, its okay," he muttered, doing his best not to remember the last time he had held the kid like this and forcefully not shedding a tear himself.

"But what if she never wakes up?" Peter hiccoughed through his tears.

"She will, kid, she will, she's got all the best doctors here, and they said her prognosis looked good."

"But what if she _doesn't_?"

"Then we'll deal with that when we get to it, but I don't think you have to worry about that."

"Okay," Peter sniffed. "I should probably stop crying, shouldn't I?"

"Not if you don't want to."

"I think I want to."

"Well, okay then." Tony said, proud of the determination in Peter's voice, and helped the kid get unsteadily to his feet.

"Do you want to say anything else before we go?" Tony asked.

Peter shook his head, wiping his face with his sleeve.

"Is it okay if I say a few things to your aunt?"

Peter nodded.

"Um, hey May," Tony said. "I know you think I'm probably not the best person to be looking after a kid, especially not your kid. But, I've grown up a lot these past few years, a lot of stuff happened, and I think I'm mature enough to look after Peter. He's a really smart kid, he'll learn a lot about science and I think he'll really benefit from this. Don't worry, I won't push him to work hard and do things he doesn't want to do, I'm not my father. I won't let him near a weapon and he definitely won't be building any. I'll also keep him away from the paparazzi as Peter doesn't deserve them hounding him. So, that's it really, I'm just gonna take Peter to get a cheeseburger complete with lots of healthy salad that he said you'd appreciate, please wake up soon."

"Bye Aunt May," Peter said, his voice slightly croaky from the tears.

And with that, Tony and Peter went to get their cheeseburgers.

-AC-

"So," the Ancient One said slowly. "Now we have a list of approximate dates and times for all major future events we should decide on our priorities. Thanos obviously is a priority, but so is stopping Kaecilius from going down the same path this time round, we have to avoid the unnecessary death, chaos and threat to this dimension."

"We have to protect the Book of Cagliostro, without the spell inside it he will find it a lot harder to contact Dormammu. Perhaps we should remove it from the library and hide it somewhere else?"

The Ancient One frowned. "Where would be safer though..."

"Anywhere that has something better than a single librarian who can easily be beheaded."

"It was a shame what happened to him. We will need to forewarn him and put the library under better protection." She turned to Stephen. "I think you are right about that though, would you be able to keep the book hidden. I feel you are one of the only people who would not use the book's contents for their own gain."

"I would be able to, however-"

At that moment their surroundings rippled and and became jagged like glass. Kaecilius forced open the mirror dimension they had been talking privately in, his whole body trembling with rage, entire focus on the Ancient One.

"How could you do this? How could you betray me like this?" he demanded.

The Ancient One regarded him, her calm demeanor tinged with a hint of sadness. "Kaecilius, if you would just let me ex..."

"No! What is there to explain? You lied to me. After my wife and child died you said that studying the mystic arts would help me find peace. Help me find meaning to their deaths. Well it hasn't. Death is pointless, futile, a stumbling block in evolution. And after all your empty words you knew that, didn't you?"

"You're wrong."

"Am I? After _he_ -" Kaecilius gestured to Stephen- "told me about your connection to the dark dimension I did some research in the library, and all my research led me to one conclusion. I know why you do not age, do not die, you are siphoning power from the dark dimension for your own use. You are selfish and a hypocrite. You say there is point in death but you cannot give me a proper reason why. Now I know why, you yourself fear it. But you will not share your power, you will not help others do the same, you will not let us evolve!"

"I did not hide it for my own gain," the Ancient One exclaimed as an icy pit opened in Stephen's stomach. He _had_ done it, he _had_ set Kaecilius down the wrong path earlier than before. "Once I had done the ritual there was no going back. I stay alive to protect others from the same fate. The dark dimension is not safe, what is in there would destroy humanity, not let it evolve!"

"Safe? Safe? No one's safe _here_! We're constantly threatened by our own mortality."

"Do you want to know who rules over the dark dimension?" Stephen cut in before either of the others could say anything else. "Dormammu. And he only grants you eternal life so you can be his puppet. It seems like losing your own mind and drifting on into eternity as a part of him is rather a devolution. It's better to live a short life in control of your own volition than to stretch on into eternity as something else."

" _She_ doesn't seem to be under the control of anyone." Kaecilius pointed out. "I will find out how to do it. And I will find out how to do it safely. I will free humanity from its cursed short existence."

The Ancient One began muttering a spell but before she could do anything Kaecilius had disappeared.

They stood there in stunned silence for a couple of seconds.

"I will warn the others," the Ancient One said. "Guard the book and I will give it to you once I am assured the sanctuaries are protected."

"On it," Stephen said, and rushed off in the direction of the library. Hopefully he would be able to pick up a sling ring and acquire his cloak at some point in the future.

 ** _I hope you guys enjoyed that!_**

 ** _Please review if you did! I've left this six months now so basically your continued interest is going to be one of the things that ensures I keep working on this regularly over the holiday as it will let me know that people haven't given up._**

 ** _Will baby Morgan be appearing in this story a way down the line? Absolutely! Do I care that, logically, a different egg would be fertilised so she would be a different Morgan than in Endgame? Nope. This is my story and I do what I want._**


End file.
